Notocrypta pria?

[Painted Jezebel]

Could this be Notocrypta pria?

Two aspects have made me consider this, rather than N. paralysos:
a) No white subapical forewing spot, though this is sometimes missing from N. paralysos as well.
b) It was very small when compared to the usual N. paralysos which I see regularly here.

[Psyche]

The more pointed forewing and the shape of the white band with the 2 notches indicates it is N. paralysos.
What is interesting is that the small race asawa is found in northern Malaya & Langkawi and should continue into southern Thailand.
Subspecies varians is found in central & south Malaya.

It would appeared there is a large overlap in peninsular Thailand which is rather confusing.

TL Seow

[Painted Jezebel]

It would appeared there is a large overlap in peninsular Thailand which is rather confusing.

Thank you, the white band had me wondering.

According to Pinratana (Butterflies in Thailand, volume 5 - 1985), ssp. varians is from Ranong south, ssp. asawa is from Ranong north. I'm not too far from Ranong. Yutaka mentions literature giving ssp. asawa from Nakhon Sri Thammarat which is south of me, but that may be a mistake by Godfrey in 1930, otherwise he mentions nothing from the peninsular for that ssp. I do, however, see that C&P4 mentions that ssp.

What about the rules of sympatry? It is 'rather confusing'.

[Psyche]

What about the rules of sympatry? It is 'rather confusing'.

The rules of sympatry largely applies to species. If 2 subspecies occur sympatrically and there are no intermediates, they should be considered full species.

Peninsular Thailand is at the boundary between continental and Sundainian forms, This have given rise to many variants.
A startling example would be Papilio prexaspes. Ssp. pitmanii in the north is banded like P. polytes, while ssp. prexaspes in the south is like P. helenus, but there are intermediate in between.

KL have both ssp. jacintha & bolina of H. bolina for over half a century, yet they are still not fully intergrated.
Likewise for the 2 forms or ssp. of D. bisaltide.
The same holds true for Singapore.
They are like humans where each community keeps to itself with a little intermarriages from time to time. Full mixing will probably takes thousands of years.

Sometimes back, I read a little article in ?Scientific American about 2 colonies of a spp. of fruitfly that live on opposite banks of the Gulf of California in Baja California. When brought together they refuse to mate with the opposite colony. The scientists found over the millenia each colony have evolved a slightly different mating dance. The female fails to recognise the opposite male as its own & refuse to mate. The experiment was limited in the sense that it was not carried on to find if eventually mating occurs.
This may be an example of how mating between subspecies may not be common in some cases.

Yutaka have done more than most in studying the various forms in our region. He had dropped many subspecies in peninsular Thailand into synonymy.

DNA studies may be useful in determing the status of many doubtful cases.
Even so, consider the case of the Sumatran & Bornean Orang-utan. DNA studies show a % genetic difference that is between species like the Bonobo & Chimpanzee, yet in the past these apes were simply kept together in zoo and are known to be fully compatible & interfertile.

TL Seow

[Painted Jezebel]

Peninsular Thailand is at the boundary between continental and Sundainian forms, This have given rise to many variants.

I know, and it is VERY frustrating!!!! The boundary is believed to have been at the Isthmus of Kra, somewhere between Ranong and either Chumphon or along the Klong Lang Suan.